Some thoughts about Green Arrow #50

What's inside the box?

Ollie was handled a big responsibility by Martian Manhunter and that might put him at odds with Dinah and everyone else.

This volume has come to a conclusion and quite frankly, I'm glad that is over already. Not because I'm glad that my favorite character is without his book, far from it, but because the Rebirth book started in a rather underwhelming way due that Ben Percy tried to overcompensate for how incredibly terrible his New 52 run by giving the most vocal fans what they wanted from the title (political tone, beard, Black Canary) but without adding any sense of context or depth and even worse, still maintaining some of the same flaws his previous work had. Sure, some writers, particularly the Bensons, tried to salvage the book but at the end it was too late and sadly, I don't think Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing did much to fix that.

In fact, the first thing we learn is that Dinah apparently betrayed Ollie and is helping one of the organizations she used to work for (probably from her Team 7 days, even if that part of the New 52 story is still intact) and you know what? I totally buy this. Dinah has always been insulting and disminishing Ollie over the course of this Volume (especially when she was being written by Percy, God, he made her such an asshole) so this direction doesn't really come out of nowhere... what DOES come out of nowhere is that she flip-flops rather quickly about if she's betraying Ollie or helping him and none of that is really well-explained (mind you, is still better handled than when Percy did the same with both Emiko and Diggle).

Worst of all, the Civilian, that villain that the writers created here, is taking the role of the new protector of Seattle apparently because she herself has decided that Ollie is not apt for it anymore and this is just awful. First of all, it doesn't matter how much she repeats that Ollie put the city in peril because of the box and how it doesn't matter if he has saved the city multiple times because it DOES matter. Second of all and most importantly, WHO THE HELL IS SHE TO DECIDE THIS?! She only recently appeared and for all we know she didn't contribute with anything to help Seattle. Hell, the worst thing is that this kind of character was already done by the Bensons before except that they had the good sense to treat that person for what it was, a frikking villain, the writers here are trying to give her a sense of superiority that is not earned.

Finally, the issue ends with a good twist admitedly and puts Ollie in a new direction that will most likely launch a new title and it kinda reminds me of how Green Arrow Vol. 2 ended so that's neat I guess.

Javier Fernandez handles the art and once again, his storytelling makes the plot shine despite of how messy it ultimately is.

Overall, there is more bad than good but isn't that a perfect summary of the Rebirth book as a whole?

Adequate finale then.